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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-695
Job's Tears
Coix lacryma-jobi
Job's Tears is a robust wetland grass grown for a hard, glossy seed that comes in two forms - a hard-shelled wild type strung as beads for necklaces and rosaries, and a soft-shelled cultivated type that is the edible grain, cooked like rice, ground into flour, fried as a sweet, or brewed into tea and beer. The husked seed carries more protein and fat than rice and has a long history of medicinal use for digestive complaints and inflammation. It also works as fodder and silage for livestock, and its stems are woven into matting. It self-sows readily on consistently moist to wet ground, so a pond margin, swale bottom or ditch line suits it better than a cultivated bed.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Moist · Wet
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 4.5–8.4
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–6 ft
- Mature spread
- 6–24 in
- Plant spacing
- 12 in
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Seed
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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